author, singer, scientist

Writing Game

For today’s writing prompt, I tried using a sentence generator. Whilst more open-ended than my usual prompts, it seemed to be sufficiently story-prompting. At least, it seemed better than the automatic sentence the generator starts with: “If the bunny rabbit and the tooth fairy had babies, would they take your teeth and leave chocolate for you?” Sorry–what? I have so many questions…

Name of the game: Fire Starter.

The rules: Write the supplied sentence/sentence fragment at the top of your page, (computer, notebook, etc. Whatever you prefer) set a timer for 10 minutes and start writing whatever you think would follow that first sentence.

Today’s sentence fragment:

She was too short to see over the fence…

If you feel like it, post what you’ve written in the comments! I always love reading it.

Life currently consists of studying, worrying, procrastinating and sleeping–it’s exam season. Christmas seems like a very nice dream now that I’m back in student housing where the radiators either have no effect or they melt your face. Also the beds–did I mention the beds? They make my mattress at home feel like a cloud.

Choosing a prompt this week was hard! I found so many good pictures to use for future games of Snap Shot, but here’s what I picked this time:

My year started wonderfully with friends, champagne, and games. These included Pass the Parcel, a very British party game which seems to me like an excuse to throw things at family members (I promise I do actually enjoy it).

Of course, now it’s time for me to dive head first into revision in order to pass my exams, starting with evolutionary biology–timed-essay style–on the 14th. But before that, here’s a writing prompt!

It’s December! NaNoWriMo is over, there are Christmas trees and fairy lights everywhere, and I feel very festive. Unfortunately for me, the festiveness also comes with a million end-of-term deadlines. Yay.

For a break, I did this Christmassy writing prompt and managed to rope in several people to do it with me. The results were hilarious. So, join in and then see what we wrote! Continue reading →

As I’m writing this, it’s half a week before it’s posted, I’m behind, and I feel like I’ve only just scraped past the halfway point. Still technically in week 3, the end seems too close, but at the same time, I’m also looking forward to taking a break from words. I have too many essays with mid-December deadlines that I have not started and I just want it to be Christmas.

But.

I have a semi-formed blob of a novel and I’m proud of it. It’s not really going anywhere and I have yet to have any form of extreme conflict, but I have some really fun characters. You should be proud of what you’ve created too. We’ve done this–we made something amazing, and we can’t quit now that we’re so close to the end. I’ve compiled together some writing dares, some tips, and some sugar-filled baking recipes to help us through these last five days. We can do this!! Continue reading →

In the grand scheme of things, 10 is a small number. It’s the number of our fingers. Two bags of custard doughnuts from Co-op (which are surprisingly vegan). And a perfectly acceptable number of zebrafish to own (I was going to say cats, but then I thought about it).

But still. TEN. It’s very exciting to have reached double digits. It also means I’ve been doing these regularly for fifteen weeks (every other Thursday). Writing prompt #1 was actually in May and wasn’t going to be a regular thing. But writing prompt #2 got such an unexpected amount of positive feedback I decided to do it that way! I’ve definitely enjoyed doing a writing prompt every other week, and I definitely think it’s helped my writing. I hope if you’ve tried any of them, that you’ve also found them fun and/or helpful!

It is week 2. Day 12. Technically week 2.5. Already, NaNo participants, you have done incredible things. For example, Germany who have a combined total of 31 MILLION words from 3,787 people so far (I didn’t realise this region scoreboard existed–it’s really cool!). Week 2 is all about rolling out from week one with a purpose: you know your characters, you know what they want, you know their world–now you can get down to creating drama; the beautiful snowy hill is in front of you and it’s time to get on that sledge.

If instead of this, you’re still struggling with the actual forming of your snowball story, don’t worry. As the data from the region scoreboard indicates, there are so many people in your shoes. But you’ve started and you’re going to do this thing! I’ve compiled some games, some tips, and some very fun quotes from authors to try and help all of you, struggling or not, to stay motivated. Hope they help! Continue reading →

As some of you know, we’re 8 days into NaNoWriMo. So far, I’m just hanging on by the skin of my teeth. And yes, I’m counting every word of this intro as a word because otherwise, this post wouldn’t exist–sometimes you just have to compromise. Now, I usually write whatever comes into my head for these writing prompts, but today I’m going to try to tie in the prompt with my novel and use it to inspire wacky new plot ideas. Feel free to join me in trying to weave in your NaNo novel, or just write whatever you feel like! Continue reading →